Thanks BF.
I think you have mentioned something important there.
Bite.
When I was younger, I used to paint a lot of portraits. They were not your average portraits. They were bright and all the wrong colours. But they had energy. I have always been creative and artistic, like my parents, but I am not, by any means, an exceptional artist. I am not properly trained. My proportions and tone is often way out. And believe me, this is not just my opinion. Knowing my limitations has stopped me from doing this for a long time.
But the point here, was not to create something that was technically wonderful.
It was not to draw a hand as it looks in real life.
It was to convey mood - innercity darkness, danger, corruption, sadness, ambition, hope and the lack of it, rags to riches, riches to rags, the hunters and the hunted, love, sex, vilolence, mystery - another world that may be out of many people's view, but right on their doorstep.
This picture almost created itself. I didn't copy anything. I literally made it up and it sprung into it's own life. And I was happy for him to be born like that. To choose his skin colour, sexuality, gender and clothing. I see him as a guard. In my mind, there is a place in Norwood, South London, where there is an archway. Beyond the archway, as you begin to walk down a hill is a housing estate, with huge tower blocks, opening up before you like a small metroplolis. It is intimidating but your heart flutters when you see it. When me and my friend Jenni used to walk past the opening, I used to have to take a look - especially in darkness. It was like a sea of gravestones, riddled with the tiny white lights of windows. And I can see this guy being the one that lets you through that gateway .. or not. To the estate's mysteries and hidden depths. Am I rambling, lol.
But that's what I mean, BF. Bite. I am excited about the subject and want to get it down, somehow. I feel that the artist that worked on the Voodoo deck succeeded in that - getting it down, conveying the mood of the subject and place, regrardless of whether she could paint bodies to perfect proportion. There are many artists that can do that, but it does not always breathe life into the subject. I always prefer an interesting 'voice' that sings something different to a trained one that sings a dull song.
LB